The Man on the Monkey Board - Recap

Tod and Buz have gotten new jobs working as roustabouts for an off-shore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. One of their fellow new recruits whom they are assigned quarters with is Bartlett, an elderly and scholarly-looking man. Bartlett immediately draws interest from the other men not only for his inordinate interest in his fellow workers, but because of his inexperience and obvious unsuitability for such work. In reality, Bartlett is not what he appears to be, and is secretly working for an organized agency on a dangerous mission that has meant death for others.

Tod wakes up in the middle of the night to hear Bartlett steal furtively from his bed and the small stateroom they share. Surreptitiously following Bartlett, Tod sees him steal a copy of the rig’s employee role and compare it with the handwriting in the fragment of a letter he is carrying. Back in the room, Tod witnesses Bartlett hide the paperwork under his pillow along with a photograph. Stealing a peek at the picture when Bartlett briefly departs the room, Tod is horrified to see it is a gruesome picture of a field full of bodies of concentration camp victims, apparently taken sometime during the end of the war.

The next day, a worker discovers the photo in the pocket of a robe in the shower room. As the men express disgust at the apparent practical joke, Bartlett studies closely the faces of each one for their reaction. Later that day at work, Tod confronts Bartlett alone, telling him that he knows it was he who was behind the act. Bartlett replies that he had his reasons for doing what he did and also warns Tod that Tod’s life may be in danger from his association with him.

Later, Bartlett is walking across a piece of planking at his duty station when it gives way causing him to plummet into the water. Tod and Buz come to his rescue and save him from drowning. In the infirmary, Tod, who has recovered a piece of the planking, states that he believes it was deliberately cut. In front of the doctor, Bartlett denies that an attempt was made on his life and says that he merely slipped. However, when he is alone with Tod and Buz, he reveals his true identity and purpose on the rig to them.

Bartlett is really Daniel Thorwall, a college professor and Holocaust survivor who lost most of his friends and family at Auschwitz. He is seeking an escaped Nazi war criminal named Otto Reinertz, whom Thorwall believes is one of the men working on the rig because of information gained from a letter Reinertz wrote to a former mentor who died before he could destroy the missive. Thorwall, who has little idea of what Reinertz actually looks like and is not sure which of the men he is, reiterates his warning to Tod and Buz that their lives are also in danger now that they have helped him.

Thorwall intensifies his efforts to cross names off of his list of suspects. Finally, he is left with just one – a man going by the name of Palmer. Thorwall seeks to further confirm his suspicions by leaving a ragged doll in Palmer’s bed which once belonged to a young girl who died in a concentration camp. Palmer reacts by destroying the doll in anger.

As the men on the rig prepare to depart to shore for a weekend, Thorwall seeks to close his trap, sending a message to Palmer that the doctor wants to see him. When Palmer arrives in the infirmary, he finds Thorwall holding a gun on him. Although Palmer at first protests innocence, Thorwall orders him to submit to an X-ray, where the steel plate in his head finally confirms his identity as Reinertz. Immediately Palmer drops the facade of his disguise, reverting back to his German accent and his Nazi arrogance. Thorwall tells Reinertz he intends to take him to shore, where authorities await to finally bring him to judgment.

On their way to the airlift platform to wait for an outgoing helicopter, Thorwall and Reinertz encounter Tod and Buz, who concerned, stick close with the pair while Thorwall continues to hold his hidden pistol on Reinertz. Just as they emerge onto the platform, Reinertz makes a break, grabbing the landing gear of a helicopter that is just taking off. But as the helicopter rises high over the gulf waters, Reinertz is unable to hold on and falls to his death. With his final justice having at last caught up with Reinertz, the rest of the rig workers marvel at how closely they worked with such an infamous individual.



Share this article with your friends